May 13: Morning

(McLeod Auditorium, 1 King’s College Circle) 

8:30am: Registration: Registration at McLeod Auditorium will open until 11:30am. (Registration at Rotman School of Management will open 12pm-4pm.)

9am-9:30am: Welcome to TLS2026
Welcome remarks by Susan McCahan, Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning, and President Melanie Woodin

Chris Eisgruber, Professor of Law, President of Princeton University

Charlie Keil, Professor, Cinema Studies Institute and Department of History, Principal of Innis College

In an age of deepening political and social divides, classroom conversations can easily accelerate into problematic territory. How do we create the conditions for students to disagree productively, and what’s the role of academic freedom and open inquiry in getting there?

Join Christopher Eisgruber, Professor of Law, President of Princeton University, and author of the recently published Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right and U of T’s Charlie Keil, Professor in the Cinema Studies Institute and the Department of History, Principal of Innis College, and member of the President’s Teaching Academy for a candid conversation on teaching through the challenges of polarization to help students build a capacity for productive dialogue, creative disagreement, and compassionate critical thought.

Join members of the President’s Teaching Academy (PTA) for an open, candid conversation about their teaching journeys; what they’ve learned, what they’ve let go of, and what they’d tell their first-year selves.

The PTA is comprised of winners of the President’s Teaching Award. 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of this award, the highest honour for teaching at U of T.  

11:45am: Lunch (pick-up at McLeod Auditorium) 

May 13: Afternoon

(Rotman School of Management, 105 St. George Street) 

1pm-2pm: Concurrent Sessions 1

Rotman School of Management (95/105 St. George)

1.1 Jam Session (Room L1020)
Is this good? Supporting learner evaluations of written texts across disciplines and technologies

1.2 Tuning In Sessions (Room 142)
1.2.1 Reflecting through Relationships: A Grounded Theory of Professional Identity Development in Work-Integrated Learning
1.2.3 Signal over Stress: Designing Flexible Deadlines and Intentional GenAI Use in Large Statistics Courses

1.3 Tuning In Sessions (Room 151)
1.3.1 Learning from the Development and Evaluation of Better Together: A Longitudinal Hybrid Interprofessional Pressure Injury Prevention and Management Curriculum for Health and Social Care Students
1.3.2 Junior and Senior Faculty Reflections on Building Experiential Learning That Endures

1.4 Open Mic Sessions (Room 147)
1.4.1 The Power of Presence: Centering In‑Person Communication in a Digital‑Heavy Era
1.4.2 Indigenization of Higher Education Curriculum – Insights from a collaborative initiative of “One Dish One Spoon” faculty mentorship project
1.4.3 Connection at Scale: Efficient Strategies for Personalized, Empathic Feedback

1.5 Open Mic Sessions (Room 157)
1.5.1 An Interactive Module to Prepare Nursing Students for Their First Clinical Placement: The transformation of an idea
1.5.2 Stop, Breathe, Dwell: Assessment Practices That Cut Through Pedagogical Noise
1.5.3 Optimizing Instruction in the MD Anatomy Curriculum Using Backward-Design and Students-as-Partners to Design a Pilot Dissection Program

1.6 Special Session (Room L1060)
A Conversation on Teaching with U of T’s Emerging Educators

2:15pm-3:15pm: Concurrent Sessions 2

2.1 Jam Session (Room L1020)
Conversations in Beta: An Interactive Workshop on AI‑Generated Simulations

2.2 Jam Session (Room 142)
It Takes a Village: Fostering Hope and EnvironMental Wellness in the University Classroom through Collaboration

2.3 Jam Session (Room L1060)
GenAI and Teaching Integrity

2.4 Tuning In Sessions (Room 147)
2.4.1 A framework for balancing equity, pedagogy, and management of a multi-section course
2.4.2 Teaching Judgment Through Examples: Communication, Critical Thinking, and Civil Discourse in AI-Rich Learning Environments

2.5 Open Mic Sessions (Room 151)
2.5.1 About binomial theorem I am teeming with a lot of news: oral tests in a first-year math class
2.5.2 Use of OneNote Class Notebook as a Combined Electronic Laboratory Notebook and Content Delivery Tool
2.5.3 Assessing students at regular checkpoints at scale

2.6 Open Mic Sessions (Room 157)
2.6.1 Supporting Our Students’ Mental Health: Quercus-based Resources for the Classroom
2.6.2 From Summative to Formative: Implementing and Refining Two-Stage Exams in a Large Undergraduate Course
2.6.3 Mind the Gaps: An online “survival guide” for graduate students

3:30pm-4:30pm: Concurrent Sessions 3

3.1 Jam Session (Room L1020)
Teaching in Trying Times: A Sounding Board for Pedagogies of Care

3.2 Jam Session (Room L1060)
Teaching with Claude: Lessons from a Cross-Disciplinary Pilot

3.3 Jam Session (Room 142)
GenAI-Sensitive Assignment Design: Pedagogical Reflections for Human-Centred Teaching and Learning

3.4 Tuning In Session (Room 151)
3.4.1 Competency-based learning and radical student agency in first year calculus courses
3.4.2 Cultivating Relational Competence: Teaching Behaviour Change Through Trauma Informed Pedagogy in Graduate Dietetics Training

3.5 Tuning In Session (Room 157)
3.5.1 Evaluating the use of infographic instruction in undergraduate science classes
3.5.2 Tuning into Language Ideologies: A Case Study of Game-Based Collaborative Inquiry in Multilingual Education

3.6 Special Session (Room 147)
Neurodivergent at University: A Documentary Short Pre-Screening

May 14

8:30am: Registration

Rotman School of Management (95/105 St. George Street)

9am-10am: Concurrent Sessions 4

4.1 Jam Session (Room L1060)
Tuning In to Graduate Student Professional Development

4.2 Jam Session (Room 142)
Cultivating Hope Through Critically Informed Contemplative Pedagogy

4.3 Tuning In Sessions (Room 147)
4.3.1 Amplifying Support: A Low-Stakes Infographic Activity to Help Students Navigate Social Supports and Connect Emotional Topics to Community Resources
4.3.2 Beyond Apprenticeship in Undergraduate Economics: K.R.L a Co-Authored Research Lab Model for Experiential Learning and Scholarly Dialogue

4.4 Special Session (Room 151)
In Conversation with the Graduate Student Course Instructors

4.5 Special Session (New Location: Desautels Hall)
What’s Cooking in the AI Kitchen?

10:15am-11:15am: Concurrent Sessions 5

5.1 Jam Session (Room L1020)
Assignment Makeover: Designing for AI Literacy, Not AI Avoidance

5.2 Jam Session (Room 147)
Finding the Signal through Story: Arts-Based Practices for Metacognitive Sense-Making at the Intersection of Career and Academic Learning

5.3 Jam Session (Room 142)
Tuning into Threshold Concepts: Reflective Practices for Identifying Threshold Concepts

5.4 Tuning In Sessions (Room 151)
5.4.1 Back to the 90s: Investigating Engagement, Interaction, and Thinking in a Screenless First-Year Writing Class
5.4.2 From knowing to doing: The role of experience in health professions student learning

5.5 Open Mic Sessions (Room 157)
5.5.1 Beyond the Literature Review: Modernizing Scientific Writing Assignments
5.5.2 Using an Anatomy Museum Visit to Support Learning in a First-Year Pathophysiology and Pharmacology Course for Nursing Students
5.5.3 Amplifying Connection Through Poetry: Teaching Academic Writing as a Human Practice

5.6 Special Session (Room L1060)
Introduction to Cogniti: U of T’s AI Tool to Support Student Learning

11:30-12:30pm: The Encore (Desautels Hall)